The Child Witness

Children's Eyewitness Memory

A great deal of research, scholarly debate, and public attention has been devoted to questions about children's eyewitness abilities (see Ceci and Bruck 1998; Lyon 1999). Empirical studies suggest that even young children can remember their experiences, although several factors in children, the to-be-remembered event, and the interview context can affect the accuracy and completeness of their reports and their susceptibility to false suggestions.

The most consistent predictor of memory is age. Young children typically provide less information and are more suggestible than older children, with preschoolers being particularly vulnerable to err in response to leading questions, especially when they are repeated, when preinterview instructions suggest false information consistent with the leading questions, and when children are pressured by interviewers to go [Page 208]along with the suggestions (e.g., Garven et al. 1998; Leichtman and Ceci 1995). Researchers also have uncovered associations between other characteristics in children and their memory and suggestibility, including intelligence, temperament, impulsiveness, inhibition, and attachment (see Bruck et al. 1997; Quas et al. 1997). The underlying causes for these associations remain unknown, and none of the individual-difference characteristics should be used as a litmus test to determine the veracity of a child's report. Rather, the associations highlight the complex number of individual characteristics that must be considered when evaluating children's eyewitness capabilities.

Several factors associated with the to-be-remembered event have implications for children's eyewitness memory. One such characteristic is the level of stress experienced during an event. Although empirical findings have been mixed with regard to whether stress helps or hurts memory (e.g., Goodman et al. 1997; Merritt et al. 1994), results do not support the traditional perspective that extreme distress or trauma leads to a complete absence of memory. Rather, most children can provide at least some information when questioned about stressful experiences (e.g., Quas et al. 1999; Peterson and Bell 1996). Children's level of involvement in an event and the number of times an event occurred also have implications for their memory and suggestibility. Specifically, children exhibit better memory for and are less suggestible about events in which they actively participated than events they only witnessed (Murachver et al. 1996; Rudy and Goodman 1991). Additionally, as children experience an event multiple times, they form a script of the event, which is a mental representation of the typical, repeated components. This script facilitates recall of what “usually” occurs, although it can become more difficult for children to recount a single episode. Once scripts are well formed, however, children are fairly accurate at identifying components that deviate from the typical routine (e.g., if the components are falsely suggested by an interviewer).

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